Who's the boss?

By David McDaid

Lithuanian coach Algimantas Liubinskas is a wily campaigner

News, good or bad, travels fast... except it would appear when you're the coach of the Lithuanian national team.

A full eight months after Watty's Army was forced to find a new commander-in-chief Algimantas Liubinskas was still none-the-wiser.

When asked how he thought the Scots' style of play would change under Alex McLeish's stewardship, the 55-year-old's response was along the lines of: "The Scotland team changes coach? Who is the Scotland coach now?"

But should we be so quick to believe that Liubinskas is a throw-back to the days of Soviet shoddiness?

It would certainly suit the Baltic coach to let the opposition believe him to be clueless, but the man's record would suggest he's a might shrewder than that.

Alex McLeish will have done his homework and found out that Liubinskas is an old hand at the management game.

After injury brought a premature end to his own playing career, at 31 he became the youngest ever manager of a Soviet Supreme League club, guiding Zalgiris Vilnius to three top-half finishes in the early eighties.

A spell in Bangladesh followed, before he returned to his homeland in 1992 to be the first man to take the reigns of the Lithuanian national side after the country gained its independence.

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He lost his job three years later following a disagreement with his bosses, but returned to the helm in 2003.

With no fewer than six Hearts players in his squad it's almost inconceivable that Liubinskas hasn't been given the complete low-down on the current Scotland set-up.

And as a country with a shallow talent pool of 3.4m people, Lithuania, like Scotland, has to rely on preparation and perspiration for all it achieves.

Yet for someone who seems to be so out of the loop, Liubinskas has led Lithuania to some respectable results.

In this qualifying campaign alone his side led Italy in Naples before Filippo Inzaghi scored to salvage a point for the World Champions. Add to this credible past draws with Germany and Spain.

Italy got their revenge in the last round of qualifiers, with a 2-0 victory in Kaunas.

Former Hearts striker Jankauskas returns to Scotland with Lithuania

But that aside, the Lithuanian defence has proven to be stingy, conceding only one more goal than Scotland, Ukraine and Italy.

The gulf in points is explained by the profligacy in front of goal, with only four goals in seven group matches.

Their two top scorers, Bologna's Tomas Danilevicius and Edgaras Jankauskas of Larnaca, have notched up just 22 international goals between them in over a decade.

That said, arguably Scotland's worst result in recent years was the 1-0 defeat away to Lithuania four years ago.

Now, though, riding high as they are in Group B Scotland fans see those dark days as long gone.

But anything less than a victory on Saturday would put a massive dent in the Scots' qualifying hopes.

Marcello Lippi this week described Scotland as the emerging country in world football. That's high praise from a World Champion.

Perhaps Liubinskas' denial of Alex McLeish was a reminder to the Scots that they haven't arrived yet.